MMR Creates More Smurfs. Here's the Solution

General Discussion
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MMR is NOT ABOUT COMPETITION, it’s about MONEY and it is ruining the healthy development of Human Performance Psychology and MUST BE REMOVED FROM COMPETITIVE PLAY.

Blizzard needs to create a new Game Mode Called Boot Camp.

There is a place for MMR, however, which will later be discussed. Bear with me here.

MMR is designed to make a match where the win rate on both teams is close to or at 50%. This means that if you are on a winning streak because you simply are the best player/team, your win rate will then be handicapped on subsequent, following matches, which is NOT based on your genuine skill/performance, but on the mere added factor/variable of your accumulated wins and/or losses. MMR removes the essence of genuine, real, unadulterated competition that is based on PURE Skill and Performance because, now, MMR takes into account a player’s accumulated wins and/or losses, which inevitably handicaps/rigs the match’s outcome. This flawlessly working, patented algorithm has removed authentic Skill/Performance base competition from competition in and of itself, which is the essence of competition; MMR has removed the essence of what makes competition, competition, and, therefore, is no longer competition–“Competitive Play” right now is misleading and fraudulent.

This can and will NEVER be a genuine reflection of a Player’s performance psychology and skills and will, therefore, inevitably stunt the growth, debilitate, and greatly limit the unlocking of the Player’s TRUE potential in the DEVELOPMENT of their own Performance Psychology (Note: I am not saying a player can’t get good playing through MMR. You absolutely can by simply playing the game. I am arguing about the detrimental consequences of MMR to the development of one’s Performance Psychology, how FAKE it is, and how it is not GENUINE, REAL, AUTHENTIC Competition).

In a world of GENUINE, REAL, AUTHENTIC competition, the best player/team can potentially go undefeated and the unskilled players/team can continually get stomped on by better players. In this context, the axiom is true for unskilled players that go through loss after loss: “Get Good” and don’t be offended by that. Believe me…I know that it sucks to lose so often.

Grow and Learn with every loss you go through. Keep going! Never give up! EVER!

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF THAT YOU CAN GET BETTER, put in the hard work and you will see yourselves transform into that beautiful human being you were created and meant to be. I know it’s hard, but YOU CAN DO IT! Build this mentality in this game and let it carry you throughout your life OUTSIDE of the game where there’s a world filled with pain and struggle. NEVER GIVE UP! EVER!

Onto the point at hand.

It is within this REAL competition, the champion player/team will always be faced against a contender attempting to dethrone/challenge the champion’s rank. It is within GENUINE competition that Champions must always be defending their rank/status and where non-champion players must contend/grind/COMPETE through the ebb and flow of wins and losses by “getting good” if they so CHOOSE to want to excel/“get good” and rank up (this is Performance Psychology). It is within GENUINE competition, you begin to develop the true potential of your HUMAN PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY.

To bring this into Overwatch context, High Ranking players must always be MAINTAINING/DEFENDING THEIR SR. If you’re on a unbeatable win streak, ENJOY IT! GLORY IN IT! WELL DESERVED because there is NOTHING wrong with enjoying your wins that truly show you are the best of the best. #DefendYourSR

MMR is a sham and a lie. It is built for a company’s profits and not to mitigate the player’s complaints about smurfs playing in low tier ranked matches (i.e. a high school basketball player competing against the legendary Michael Jordan).

MMR CREATES MORE SMURFS and is a perpetually WICKED cycle when used within the realm of COMPETITION because it is in it’s essence RIGGING the game. MMR pushes players who eagerly desire to succeed/rank up to have to buy another account (again, MMR is for a company’s profits not you) and start afresh with their developed skills because the first account is badly beaten with historical stats, to which, MMR makes it almost near impossible to rank up–it is possible, however, because it takes UNGODLY amounts of hours to do so, it’s faster to just simply BUY A NEW ACCOUNT, hence, MMR is for company’s profits, not for you the Player. Don’t be fooled.

There is a place for MMR, however, which will be discussed shortly.

Removing MMR is the solution to this SMURF problem in low tier ranks because if COMPETITIVE PLAY did not have MMR and was purely based on SR, SMURF players would rank up very quickly and get OUT of the low-tiered ranks where they do not belong. Unless they THROW the match, which is an entirely different discussion, to which, I believe, if caught throwing the match, the consequences must be so severe that it’s just not even WORTH attempting to throw a competitive match.

MMR works. It is proven and we all have the accounts to show it. MMR exists, the company has publicly stated that as a matter of fact.

So, where does MMR belong?

Preface: Remove MMR From Competitive. I do believe MMR can remain within the confines of Quick Play for the simple enjoyment of having pure fun playing the game; HOWEVER, QuickPlay MMR stats must NEVER be used to determine your Competitive Placement matches EVER. It is currently being utilized for brand new accounts as these new accounts don’t have a history to draw data/statistics from for determining a new Player’s competitive placement matches (i.e. this is how Unranked To GM videos work).

MMR belongs within the confines of a Competitive Boot Camp game mode where the MMR stats of a player drawn within this game mode will determine your placement matches in REAL, AUTHENTIC, GENUINE Competition/Competitive Play-- that does not have MMR–that is solely and holistically based on pure, unadulterated Skills and Performance where the potential to go UNDEFEATED is possible.

This must also be PUBLICLY STATED so as to define the significance, importance of, and encourage players to take this specific game mode VERY seriously because it will 1. determine the start of their initial placement matches in Real Competitive Play, 2. help with every changing season and thereafter, and 3. the most IMPORTANT of all, it will help maintain the integrity of REAL Competition and, therefore, become a platform to the healthily develop of the Player’s Performance Psychology.

This is a lot to digest, I know.

Why is this so important and should you even care? ABSOLUTELY YOU SHOULD CARE!

If people/players are okay with being LIED to about their own skills/performance, if people/players are okay living with a FAKE reflection of their own performance and skill development in this game, this shows clearly that they really DON’T CARE and the only response I have to that is,

well, damn,

go live happily in ignorance while knowing full well you’re lying to yourselves and I REALLY HOPE there are enough people that actually DO CARE so REAL GENUINE change can take place for the betterment of all Players and the development of their own Performance Psychology.

I love this game as I’m sure many players do. If so, you really SHOULD care about this issue.

Let’s make it happen. NEVER GIVE UP.

#RemoveMMRfromcompetitive
#DefendYourSR
#MMRisNOTrealcompetition
#PerformancePsychology

-Bro

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They are never going to remove an Elo-calculating matchmaking system out of their ranked ladder. What you are asking for is essentially allowing teams to be paired regardless of actual skill, meaning a group of average bronze players could face against a group of grandmasters. This would create more unfair and lop-sided matches than what we already observe. Sorry but your proposal is not a very good design.

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just wondering what about yearly resets of rank/sr/mmr. would be kind of cool to reset everything once in a while. once a year sounds reasonable

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The problem there is that it takes several weeks to settle the ladder, meaning the quality of matches during that time would be terrible. Furthermore, if a player doesn’t like where they ended up at the start of year, they would likely stop playing until the next reset. Not to say they wouldn’t do a MMR-reset at some point (though they have dismissed any such event from coming anytime soon), just want to point out the disadvantages to such a system.

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This is not true. Matchmaking solely based off a Player’s SR will group them in their respective categories.

A grandmaster who happens to have an account with an SR in Bronze Rank is a SMURF. Yes there will be a lopsided match, but eventually with time (ratherly quickly), these SMURF accounts will rank up OUT of bronze unless they purposefully THROW the match to stay in. MMR allows the exacerbation of SMURFS staying within ranks they shouldn’t be in and creates even more SMURFS, which is good for the company’s profits, but not for genuine competition.

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You’d just end up back where you were. It would be an endless cycle of chaos with no discernable purpose.

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Okay, skill rating is your MMR. Its a calculated number that represents the hidden MMR metric that makes sense when you read it, but it is your MMR. For as far as we know our MMR is something like 0.428973289473298472398 on a scale of 0 to 1

So you really don’t want things to change from what we have them now.

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This is precisely how an MMR Competitive Boot Camp CAN fix this exact issue.

The reason why the competitive match is the way that it is with all of these smurfs around is BECAUSE of MMR being implemented since season 13. I believe it’s 13, correct me if I’m wrong. The bootcamp will keep them continually playing as it HELPS with their competitive play. Consider the bootcamp as an EDGE for the player to then compete in real competition.

You said, “Okay, skill rating is your MMR. Its a calculated number that represents the hidden MMR metric”. This is my response:

MMR takes into account how many wins and/or losses you’ve accumulated as well, which then is the exact variable/factor that causes the match to have a rigged outcome of 50% on both teams. MMR is NOT skill rating. Skill Rating IS NOT MMR. They are holistically and must be treated as separate variables, but can still work together in some way. It destroys the essence of competition and will not allow the potential of a Player to go on with an undefeatable win streak. Fair, unadulterated competition allows for that. MMR doesn’t, therefore, MUST be dealt with. WE MUST have things change. MMR in competitive is NOT good. MMR is the REAL reason why this problem of unfair/lopsided matches exists. It was a failed solution to implement this in competitive. It’s time to correct it. Create a bootcamp. Problem solved. Contact me via email and let us discuss.

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How many threads about this are you going to make?

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I have no other reason to make another thread about this topic. My thoughts are all on this consolidated one.

Will it do something?

I hope so.

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SR is different than MMR

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My thoughts exactly. Remove MMR from competitive.

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Wish it wasn’t

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You still haven’t understood how MMR works.
If you overperform for the rank you are at, it makes it easier for you to climb.

Hence it significantly lessens the effect smurfs have on the game.
Removing MMR and solely basing matchmaking on SR makes smurfing much easier, more devastating and therefore more attractive .

Just read the dev quote that you yourself linked to in another thread:

The same would apply to an SR based system - unless you have no matchmaking at all and simply grab 12 random people and throw them into a match.

Most people don’t enjoy one-sided stomps (those who do are usually smurfs) and wouldn’t see a system like that as a fair competition.

Though you are right about one thing at least:
MMR is about money.
It makes the game more fun and balanced and good games tend to sell much better than bad games :wink:

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You’re missing my point. I understand MMR is ‘trying’ to fix this smurfing issue. But it isn’t. It’s making it WORSE by creating more smurfers.

This is what they claim to be the case, but it is not the case. This is the very lie they’re spewing out. More smurfs are created thus making the ‘effect smurfs have on the game’ EVEN WORSE.

Bro, no one enjoys a one-sided stomp. No one enjoys losing when they’re competing. But this is STILL all a part of the process of what genuine competition does. The Player who overcomes this and continues to never give up and press on will develop and build SOUND performance psychology because the development of it comes from GENUINE COMPETITION not this fake MMR b.s… SR based matchmaking may make smurfing in games more ‘devastating’ but only for a short time because it will correct itself and get these smurfs the HELL OUT of the rank their skills say they ought not to be in. The only way they can stay and keep smurfing is 1. BUY ANOTHER ACCOUNT, which is GREAT for the company and/or 2. to keep THROWING the game and losing and as these smurfers THROW games, THEY WILL GET CAUGHT and the consequence/punishment of throwing the competitive match must be severe for any player to not even ATTEMPT to throw. Trying to correct this issue by removing the essence (rigging the outcome of every match to 50% win rate) of competition defeats the purpose of COMPETITIVE PLAY and COMPETITION in and of itself. It is a failed solution that MUST be corrected.

I’m right about a lot of things.

You’re talking about a game that IS NOT EVEN REAL COMPETITION that is much more fun “and balanced” as you say. The current words, ‘Competitive Play’ is such a flat out lie. And it is this very LIE that you’re claiming is “fun and balanced”.

To each their own I suppose.

#RemoveMMRfromCompetitive #DefendYourSR

Why do you think Blizzard chooses not to lift a single finger to address this issue of MMR in competitive? Why do you think Blizzard doesn’t want to get RID of MMR within competitive? It’s making them more money and/or retaining their profits and sales revenue. More smurfers are created by them buying more accounts. Players that are hardstuck and wishing to rank up with their new skills are more encouraged to re-BUY the game AGAIN and essentially ‘start over’. If you STILL think that this current competitive play is “fair and balanced” and much more “fun” after knowing all of this to be true, then go and enjoy your happiness and enjoyment in willful ignorance.

Your performance psychology will never attain it’s true potential in this game so long as MMR exists within competitive play and that my dear and fellow Overwatch player is a true travesty.

‘fun and balanced’? lol you’ve got to be joking. But i’m sure you’re not.